Re-interpreting the events of Small Favor

[Mira]

Keep in mind, there may have been fall back plans in case abducting Marcone failed to get Harry involved that just never got realized because Harry fell for plan 1.  Heck after converting Marcone, if Harry still wasn't involved Marcone (or Nick) could have just directly challenged Harry to a duel like Ortega did and necessitate an arbiter again to draw in the Archive.  And then probably a fall back plan if that doesn't work.  I mean, you do not work to get literally every Denarian in the world together in one place and cooperating and then go, "whoops, I guess that didn't work, everyone go home, chaos cancelled."  Something big was going to happen no matter what Harry did.

However Harry knew full well what Nic's plan was to begin with..   1] Break a Holy Sword.. Harry
was willing to risk it because saving Ivy was more important to him, and he had a good back up crew. 2] To complete the takeover of Harry by Lasciel... What Nic didn't know was Harry had transferred the Shadow into Lash, and that she had already sacrificed herself for him and was gone..

[exartiem]

I don't think you can force someone to be an arbiter.  Ivy could just refuse if Nic challenged Harry.

[KurtinStGeorge]

Titania wanted Harry dead  But that debt lay at Mab's feet since Harry was acting for Winter.  Snatching Marcone was meant to get Mab to do just what she did.  Enlist a mortal champion.  Being how she was in the middle of a torture session with the current Knight.  Who you gonna call?  Harry is where he always is, the last to know.

Yes, but I thought that happened after the Gruff's first attempt to kill Harry.  You see the problem.  Titania went after Harry before the domino's you describe, started to fall.  Even if Titania knew Marcone was going to be kidnapped and reasoned that Mab would enlist Harry as her emissary; that is not countering Winter, that's being proactive.  There's something else going on here.   

[kbrizzle]

@morriswalters & KurtinStGeorge

One of my WAGs in the PG thread is that the reason Winter sends all their spare troops to the Summer border instead of attacking the Ramps for trespassing on their territory is that the Nfected Maeve convinced Mab that Lily was the one who was Nfected (probably saying that Nemesis fled from Aurora into her after the former’s death). As a result, Mab starts preparing Molly to become the new Summer Lady (throwaway line at the end of CD about Mher considering Molly a better candidate for Summer).

Perhaps Titania got wind of Mab’s dislike for Lily, and knowing how the Sidhe love symmetry, figured that Harry would be put on the job to remove Lily. As a result, she tries to attack him when justifiable - even if it is proactive perhaps.

[Avernite]

Or maybe Summer is more pro-active than it likes to come across. Who do we have that say Summer is reactive to Winter? Fix, Mother Summer, Lily.

I wonder if any of those have an interest in convincing Harry that Summer is the good guys?

[morriswalters]

Just because harry didn't have any idea of what was going on doesn't mean anything. That's SOP for Harry. Harry owes Mab.  If I read JB's setup correctly, as long as that debt existed, anything that put the Queens  in contention makes Harry fair game.  Poor Harry. 

Mab not warning Harry is just part of Mab's ongoing effort to get Harry trained up.  Else  she could have reached him prior to the first attack.  She only warns him about Summer after she mind f**ks him and removes his memory of fire magic.   Oh yeah, and it adds an element of coercion to her offer for him to act for her. His only out to stop the attacks was to fix Mab's problem.

@kbrizzle

Mab says that she had some other purpose for Molly in mind.  It wouldn't be within her purview to select the successor to the Summer Lady.  So I took it to mean something else.